Long ago, great Senators existed. Resolute and accountable, they represented their governors and state legislatures and asserted those interests in Washington. They aspired to conduct themselves as statesmen; we the people expected statesmanship. We the people also hoped they would be better than we could be, while we agreed with the fundamental truth of Colonel Ludlow in Legends of the Fall.
No longer. A regal Senate with a bold populist House of Representatives do not exist. What we call Senate and House do not make federal law, nor do they perform the small number of defined duties described in Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution. The making of law has become the work of lobbyists and the regulatory bureaucracy, while other Constitutional duties have become entirely too frightening to even consider, much less perform. The hydra-headed executive branch has become the permanent ruler, the center of state power, poisonous and deadly. The Senate would need 100 Hercules to behead the beast, and the House 500 loyal and brave nephews to cauterize the wounds to prevent two more heads from emerging from every wound.
The United States has been in a constant state of Congressionally undeclared war for over 60 years, war that enriches those connected to imperial policies and resources, and is paid for by lives wasted, currency debased, morals eroded, and our economy perpetually unbalanced, warped, and sclerotic. Election after election, voters support the candidate they see as less likely to take us to war and destruction, and in our repeated disappointment, we too become economically unbalanced, morally warped and politically sclerotic.
This is what Elon Musk was talking about a year ago, when he said government is unfixable. This is what Tom Woods was talking about when he quipped “No matter who you vote for, you get John McCain.” Continuity of government is not a disaster plan, it’s the only plan. Our role in this plan is both unrepublican and undemocratic: it is to obey, to fund, and to die for the state.
Lindsey Graham was aggressive and brave when far from the battlefield, obsequious and submissive to Benjamin Netanyahu as he carried the water for a foreign nation and the traitorous military industrial complex. As noted by Jack Hunter, writing in Responsible Statecraft, South Carolina has done far better in its recent past, recalling Graham’s predecessor Senator Fritz Hollings;
After his retirement, Hollings contended that the Iraq war killed more people than the U.S. supposedly tried to liberate, creating more terrorists and helping to lionize al-Qaeda leader and 9/11 architect Osama Bin Laden in parts of the Middle East.
Hollings’ controversial column suggesting the U.S. fought in Iraq for Israel’s security was published on May 10, 2004. He was inevitably, and swiftly, accused of anti-semitism. He did not back down.
The executive branch hydra moved immediately to ensure that South Carolina voters will not deliver a better advocate. Instead, with a phone call to the governor, and a quick, unholy Trump endorsement, Lindsey’s sister is flattered to be asked to serve the [executive] state. Her qualifications are dubious, but her tribe is solid.
Not one Hercules is allowed, as we saw with the $30 million dollar House Primary race to unseat Thomas Massie with a guy who dodged every debate, and promised to bring back the draft to the good people of northeastern Kentucky. His name is unimportant; it is his abject inability to represent the peaceful and independent principles of the 4th District that matters.
Upon Graham’s sudden death at 71, the nation does not grieve. Graham’s service was not to the nation, but to empire, war, and the dark arts of politics. In 2026, a gay Republican is not subject to blackmail, nor held in ridicule. Log Cabin Republicans proudly recall and celebrate the first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln, based on Lincoln’s well-advertised philosophy of liberty and equality, and his intense friendships. A inverted valuation of privacy has today normalized both the sexual affairs – and the financial profiteering – of elected officials. Those seeking to leverage a politician today must find – or manufacture – more frightening crimes like rape, pedophilia and manslaughter. Luckily for them, this is apparently not difficult.
The ceremonies in Washington for Graham were both solemn and cheerful. The deep state enters the Washington National Cathedral as if it owns the place, confident in continuity. It does, and it is.
A state funeral can demonstrate transition, and mark a public loss. It can unify a nation, and mobilize them, as we saw recently with in Iran and around the world, as the religious leader of Iran, and global Shia Islam, was finally laid to rest after the US government assassinated him five months ago. It can also demonstrate the coalescence and the creed of a state system that is disconnected from its people, and its laws. The hydra was captured in video at Graham’s funeral, as Netanyahu forcefully issued his latest orders to Rubio and Hegseth.
Elections will not save the United States, only the ending of executive-directed and imperially profitable wars and the parasitic crony class that feeds off the state, ourselves, and our children. The state is busy adopting the murderous and deceitful practices of our “best” ally; perhaps we could follow in the recent footsteps of some members of the IDF, as they conducted a small mass defection from the notorious Israeli prison in Sde Teiman.
To bury what ails the United States requires understanding, then courage, and only then, a Herculean American effort to kill the hydra and cauterize its thousand sprouting heads. If we the people evaluate what killing the hydra requires, as one in three members of our founding generation did, and decide to do our individual parts toward that end, we just might be able to have a state funeral worth attending.
